Business Daily: Your need to know

Hamilton Spectator

Happy Thursday, Hamilton business community.

Here is what your Hamilton Spectator is tracking for you today.

Reporter Meredith MacLeod is finding out what the business community thinks about a possible casino in the downtown. This as the Spectator has learned the Hard Rock café is to be included in the Mercantis’ bid for a casino in Hamilton.

Nationally, a reportby Credit 1, the Toronto-based association for credit unions, says housing prices will strengthen the most in Hamilton-Niagara and the northwest part of the GTA as Ontario home sales will start to rise generally later this year. The agency also says prices will likely increase modestly in 2014.

The Canadian dollar opened at 101.33 cents US, down 0.08 of a cent from Wednesday’s close.

Statistics Canada released some positive news about non-residential development in its daily filing Thursday morning. It says investment in non-residential building construction added up to $12 billion in the fourth quarter, up 1.0 % from the previous quarter. Significantly, this was the third consecutive quarterly increase and was led by higher spending for commercial and industrial buildings.

It matches the strong showing of investment in Hamilton’s commercial and industrial development with the city’s economic development department reporting earlier this week record-breaking investment of $1.5 billion in total developments (including residential) in 2012.

TOKYO - Sony Corp., the struggling Japanese electronics and entertainment company, is headed in the right direction although its comeback is not yet complete, its chief executive said Thursday.

Kazuo Hirai told reporters that Sony is now more nimble and focused under his leadership which began nine months ago. Sony has lost money for the past four years, and has fallen behind powerful rivals such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in profitability and innovation